MIND Diet Aids 'Cognitive Resilience' In Older People: Study

Looking for a diet that's good for the brain? The MIND diet may contribute to better cognitive performance in older adults, a new study has found.

Both the mind and the body are affected when people age. Some people, for instance, tend to develop "abnormal clumps of proteins" in their brain tissue called amyloid plaques and tangles, Rush University Medical Center noted in a news release. According to the university, these protein clumps are the "hallmark of Alzheimer's disease."

"However, not all individuals with pathologies in the brain experience cognitive dysfunction—some have the ability to maintain function despite damage from the accumulation of brain pathologies," the researchers of a new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, wrote, adding that this is a phenomenon known as "cognitive resilience."

Taking Care of Cognitive Function

The MIND diet stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It is a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, both of which are considered to be among the healthiest diets.

As the name suggests, its focus is on reducing dementia and decline in brain health as people age, and it has been associated with "slower cognitive decline and lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia in older adults," the researchers noted.

In this particular diet, the focus is on the foods in the Mediterranean and DASH diets that can benefit brain function and help prevent dementia.

MIND Diet Score

For their study, the researchers had a closer look at "whether the association of the MIND diet with cognition is independent of common brain pathologies." To do this, they followed 569 participants of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center's ongoing Memory and Aging Project, which began in 1997 and involves people who were living in Chicago, Rush University Medical Center noted.

All of the participants had agreed to have annual clinical evaluations and cognitive tests to see if they had developed problems with memory and thinking, and to have their brains autopsied when they died. They were also tasked to complete a food frequency questionnaire since 2004, in which they pointed out how frequently they consumed 144 different types of food.

"The MIND diet score has 15 dietary components, including 10 brain-healthy food groups (green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans/legumes, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and wine) and 5 unhealthy food groups (red meat, fried and fast foods, pastry and sweets, butter, and cheese)," the researchers wrote. "Based on the frequency of intake reported for the healthy and unhealthy food groups, the MIND diet score was computed for each participant summing all 15 of the component scores."

Cognitive Resilience in the Elderly

Sure enough, the researchers found evidence that the diet had benefits for the older adults, even when they developed the protein deposits, Rush University Medical Center noted.

"We found that a higher MIND diet score was associated with better memory and thinking skills independently of Alzheimer's disease pathology and other common age-related brain pathologies," study lead author, Klodian Dhana, MD, PhD of Rush Medical College, said in the news release. "The diet seemed to have a protective capacity and may contribute to cognitive resilience in the elderly."

According to the researchers, it's possible that the food components of the MIND diet, which have "antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective activities," may contribute to this association.

Green, leafy vegetables, for instance, are high in nutrients including vitamin E, folate and flavanoids "that contribute to better cognitive functioning." Animal models have also shown berry consumption to "increase neurogenesis" and "reverse neuronal aging by reducing oxidative stress."

"In the absence of effective pharmacological interventions to prevent or slow the progression of AD dementia, it is of great scientific interest to identify modifiable lifestyle factors that lower the risk of faster cognitive decline independent of AD pathology and other common brain pathologies," the researchers wrote.